by PhilBiker » Tue 12 Apr 2005, 15:43:13
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Kent', 'W')hen a person WANTS to believe something he can make himself do so no matter how much the facts may conflict with his previously held belief.
Contrarily, when a person DOESN'T WANT to believe something, no amount of evidence will be enough to convice him to see that a thing exists.
This subconscious mechanism seves to protect the individual from facing new information (or dumping cherished beliefs) which will create internal dissoncance, disturb or upset the individual, and create unacceptable levels of emotional pain.
People tend to seek pleasure and avoid pain. It is the most fundamental dynamic of the human condition.
True in a general case for most of human nature, but not 100% true. I don't think that many of us wanted to believe in the peak oil problem, but we were convinced by the facts. (many back-to-nature types actually
do want to believe in PO). Also it's a bit easier to get over this particular aspect of human nature if you're a certain Meyers-Briggs personality type or if you're at least aware of the tendency.
Ironically this part of human nature is a big reason for the allure of conspiracy theory. People subconciously don't want to believe that the governmental and protective organizations are so very vulnerable to something like an Ok city or September 11 attack or a JFK assassination. So it makes us feel assured in a strange way that it
had to be a big complicated conspiracy to cause our protective system to fail so badly. In reality all it takes is one kook with a truck full of fertilizer of one kook with a rifle or a few kooks with some money for flight school to cause massive damage to the entire system.$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'A')ll I will say is that I decided to start with "The Party's Over" because it was one of the first books I came across repeatedly in my studies of PO.
Enjoy it, that book really is a good introduction. However, take the political utopian stuff with a grain of salt. And remember that the research in nuclear science is much less exhaustive than his other research.